The road north from Kuala Lumpur (KL) crosses the state border from Selangor into
Perak at Tanjung Malim. If you
have your own transport, you
can get off the Lebuhraya (East-West
Highway) tollway and take the old
Hwy 1 through a number of diverting towns. The first of these is Slim River,
where British forces made an
unsuccessful last-ditch
attempt to halt the Japanese advance through the peninsula during WWII.

The first maintown is Bidor, famous for its guava and smelly petai beans,
where you can turn off for Teluk Intan,
42km to the west. Kampung Pasir Salak, 25km north of
Teluk Intan, is a small village of some
historical interest.
From this village you can follow the valley
of the Sungai Perak to Kampung Bota Kiri. This river
valley was the original home of the Perak sultanate and is dotted with royal
graves. From Kampung Bota Kiri you can take the road
to Lumut on the coast or travel north-east through the kampung (villages) to Ipoh.

Once known as Teluk Anson, after the early colonial planner who developed the town, the name Teluk
Intan was reinstated after Malaysia's independence. There is no pressing reason to visit
Teluk Intan, its only gazetted tourist attraction being a leaning clock tower, but it's a
pleasant, lazy town at the junction of the Sungai Perak and Sungai Bidor.

The town's striking
pagoda-style jam besar (clock tower) appears to have eight storeys (though there are only
three levels inside) and is the town's answer to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Local lore has
it that it was built, in the manner of the Taj Mahal, by a mourning Chinese merchant in
1885 as a memorial to his wife; cynics say that it was only designed as a potable-water
storage tank. The clock tower is officially closed, though its image was featured
everywhere as a symbol of the Visit Perak 2000 state tourist campaign.

Teluk Intan also has a few fine colonial buildings and old Chinese shophouses standing
around, most looking as ready to topple over as the tower. The Istana Raja Muda Perak is
the crumbling palace of the next in line to the sultanate of Perak.

LUMUT Lumut is the departure
point for Pulau Pangkor and - despite attempts to promote the town as a tourist
destination in its own right - has little to offer apart from souvenir shops selling
shells, and some reasonable beaches outside town.

The
Malaysian Navy has its principal base just outside town, and some 25,000 sailors make up
the overwhelming majority of the town's inhabitants. You'll see the huge, Singapore-like
apartment complexes of the naval quarters as you take the boat out to Pulau Pangkor.

The sailors frequent Teluk
Batik, a good beach 7km from town. There's no bus ser­vice here, but a one-way taxi costs
RM10.

Motorists on their way to Pangkor can use the 24-hour, long-term car park
behind the Shell petrol station, next to the bus station (RM6 per day).@dganum tak jumpa Shell, tapi
telah meletakkan Toyota Unser kami di tokong cina yg berdekatan (RM8 satu malam).